A Surreal Trip Down Memory Lane
by Fragile B
Summary: In the future almost everyone Danny has ever known is dead and gone. But that doesn't mean he can't visit them every now and then.
**_I guess I don't own Danny Phantom and all that jazz. Is it just me or is the disclaimer pretty pointless? The website does say 'Fan' after all. Whatever. Enjoy! (hopefully)_**

* * *

 _162 Years Later_

Life has been pretty busy for Tucker Foley since his best friend got zapped in a ghost portal. An event he had nothing to do with he might add. Nope, that one was entirely Sam's fault. But ever since that day Tucker has been spending his very valuable time protecting the citizens of Amity Park from the otherworldly beings that would do them harm. He hopes they're grateful.

It's because he's always so busy that he relishes the free time he gets to just do nothing.

And doing nothing has never sounded so sweet. Sam is at a protest, Danny's hanging with Valarie, the sky is sunny, and there isn't a ghost in sight.

Tucker closed the blinds and switched off the lights. Once encased in the darkness he turned on his computer and let the cool light of the monitor wash over him.

"Tucker-Time," he sighed, "at last."

"Oh, God," an echo-y voice laughed from the darkness. Tucker screamed and fell to the floor as he spun towards the voice. He relaxed when saw the glowing green eyes of his best friend.

"Damn it, Danny! What did we say about knocking! I think we all agreed it was a good idea!" Tucker got up and flicked the lights on to see Danny pressed against the ceiling trying to stop laughing.

"Please... please tell me you don't call it 'Tucker-Time' when you..." snickered Danny.

"When I...? What! No! No, I wasn't going to... I don't call it... What are you even doing here? I thought you had a date with Valarie?" asked Tucker, defensively.

"Do I? Cool! Way to go me." Danny floated down and let the rings of light slide across his body turning him back to human. He habitually rubbed the back of his neck and Tucker noticed his necklace.

"Hey, that's one of Clockwork's necklaces! Where did you get..." Tucker froze with realization. "You're from the future aren't you."

"Ya."

"Are you going to kill me?" asked Tucker, managing to keep most of the nervousness out of his voice. "Or maybe use me in an evil plot to ruin Danny's life and destroy the world?"

"Not that future," answered Danny, nonchalantly. He jumped on Tuckers bed and threw a pillow at him. "And seriously, you immediately guess I turn evil? Way to trust me, Tucker."

"If you're not evil what are you doing here?" Now that Tucker was assured of his survival curiosity flooded him. There was no telling what Danny could have come back for.

Danny shrugged. "I was actually hoping you were up for playing DOOMED. I haven't had a good game since you died."

* * *

 _Still 162 Years Later_

"So... the future," Sam uncomfortably began, "how is it?"

Danny shrugged and continued to comb through her record collection. "It was fine when I left it."

"Come on, Danny!" groaned Sam, rolling her eyes. "You know that's not what I was asking."

"Just like you know I can't tell you," countered Danny. He pulled an album out and looked it over. Deciding it wasn't what he was looking for Danny went back to his search.

"Oh, don't give me that! You told Tucker that he died!" Sam went over to Danny and snatched the record right out of his hands. A few seconds later and they were listening to the rather frantic vocals of a semi-famous folk-punk band.

Bobbing his head to the music Danny finally gave Sam his full attention. "It's been like a hundred and fifty years for me, Sam, of course Tuck is dead. And I wasn't thinking when I said that, but that is one of the things I can tell you. The stuff that's out of your control."

"That figures." Sam sighed and sunk into one of the many beanbag chairs the populated her music room. She didn't really care for them, but they were soft and her parents hated them so now she has thirty.

Danny understood what Sam was feeling, he knew every single detail about her future, and he couldn't tell her anything that she didn't already know.

Danny slumped down beside Sam. He could only tell her about the obvious. About what was out of her control.

"You know we do eventually confront how we feel about each other."

Sam's entire body froze as she processed what she was hearing. She slowly turned to face Danny.

"I... uh.. we do?" Sam managed to ask. She paused as she thought everything over. "Are you allowed to tell me this?"

"Yep!" Danny answered to both questions. Sam broke out of her shock and was once again filled with the energy that made her so special.

"It's not like you didn't know it would happen eventually, all of that tension. I mean, how many 'fake-out' make-outs did we have? Us talking about it for once was inevitable."

"So do we get together?" asked Sam, feeling more relaxed around this future-Danny than she has around normal-Danny in a long while.

Danny chuckled. "Now that I can't tell you."

* * *

 _Around 172 Years Later_

It was a beautiful day in Amity Park and Danny was enjoying a nice stroll through the streets. It had been a couple of years since he last went to visit his friends so when he arrived he had been eager to see them. But when he saw his past self running into an alley to transform, he remembered something so vital to his past that he was amazed he had forgotten: nobody cares about Danny Fenton.

Which leads us to Danny happily wandering around Amity. He can't do that in the future. At least, not without being harassed by civilians and monitored by government agencies. Danny smiled at every person that passed him, his glee growing with each one that ignored him.

"Who are you looking at Fen-turd?" asked a large blonde wearing a Letterman jacket.

It took a second for Danny to recognize the boy in front of him, but when he did he couldn't contain his surprise.

"Dash! Wow, it's been a while! How are you?" asked Danny, pleasantly. This response unsettled Dash. It meant that Fenton was being weird again, and whenever Fenton got weird things didn't turn out well for Dash. Another person with this information would have walked away, but not Dash.

Dash was unusually self-aware for a person of his intellect; he knew his position at the top of the social ladder was very tenuous, and could change at any moment. So when presented with the chaotic force that was a strange Danny Fenton, Dash did the only thing he could: try and preserve the status quo.

Danny frowned as he was suddenly pushed against a wall and punched in the gut. Reviewing what he remembered about Dash he accepted that this reaction wasn't entirely out of place. Dash always did have a fondness for spontaneous violence, and honestly, Danny wasn't sure if even Dash what would set him off.

In the end, it didn't matter if this was just Dash being Dash, Danny was over one hundred years old and way past the point where he would put up with schoolyard bullies. So when Dash threw his next punch he found himself hitting a brick wall.

Dash crumpled to the ground, his hand almost certainly broken. As he moaned in pain he reflected upon his actions and came to a comforting conclusion. When Fenton was back to normal he was going to wail on him.

"Well, it was nice seeing you, Dash, but I've got to go meet Sam and Tucker." Danny turned to walk away but couldn't resisting adding a little insult to his injury. "Oh, and good luck at the football game, the whole school is counting on you!"

Danny chuckled as he walked away. He was so going to get beat up for that later.

* * *

 _Most Likely 192 Years Later (But Who's Keeping Track)_

Applause rang throughout the theatre as they watched the final alien-cyborg-zombie get decapitated by the wisecracking chainsaw-handed hero.

In the back row Tucker happily cheered along with the rest of the crowd. Sam rolled her eyes at his antics while trying – and failing - to contain her smile.

Danny smiled but kept his eyes on the screen. In a moment the King alien-cyborg zombie was going to explode out of the portal the hero had unwittingly opened and the final battle would begin.

Despite it being the premiere Danny had seen this movie before. Hell, he'd seen every sequel. But even knowing what was going to happen didn't stop Danny from getting hypnotized by the action. There really was something calming about watching a man overcome insurmountable odds with nothing but a chainsaw, boom-stick, and some one-liners.

The appearance of the King had an appropriately jaw-dropping effect on Sam and Tucker. Danny stopped watching the movie and began watching his friends.

He would never tell them, but things have gotten pretty bad in the future.

Global tension was at an all-time high, with every country just seconds away from declaring war. Danny has been doing his best to keep the peace, but for some reason he feels like he's only stalling the inevitable. Probably because Vlad had told him just that before vanishing deep into the Ghost Zone.

Almost two-hundred years later and Vlad is still a dick.

But that doesn't mean he's wrong either.

Danny did his best to memorize his friends faces as he watched them flicker between shock, awe, and disgust at the bloodbath playing out before them. If things got worse Danny might not be able to see them for longer then he'd planned.

There are only so many times Danny could go see his friends without doing serious damage to the timeline. He's been trying to limit himself, only going back when he really needed to see them, but if war happens he might pull that card so often he won't have any left.

Danny stole some popcorn from Tucker, took a sip of Sam's drink, and turned his attention back to the movie.

All the more reason to try and enjoy his time with them while he has it.

* * *

 _245(?) Years Later_

Jazz worries a lot about Danny. She worries that he isn't doing well in school, she worries that he doesn't have a good relationship with their parents, and most of all, she worries about his future.

She doesn't worry about the dark future, the future where Danny lost everything. Because she knows that even if she died again, if _everyone_ died, Danny would do the right thing.

Danny's a hero.

That's why Jazz worries.

Because Danny has his whole life in front of him, and doing the right thing is only going to get harder.

And yet, for all her worrying, it seems that Danny will turn out just fine.

At least, that was how he was acting when he invited her to hang out with him, Sam and Tucker in the park. Although, the fact that he needed to travel back in time to see her was concerning.

Jazz filed those thoughts away for future consideration as she approached the trio, all laying casually on the grass covered field.

"Hey, Jazz!" Danny cheerfully greeted. Sam and Tucker acknowledged her with a grunt and a small wave, respectively.

"Hello, future-Danny. Sam. Tucker." Jazz awkward greeted. Jazz quickly inspected the ground and only once a spot was found to be suitably clean did she sit down. "I have so many questions."

"Don't we all?" mused Tucker, stroking his chin thoughtfully. He sighed, "but he won't tell us anything. Not even how many sports cars I'm going to own! How one could withhold such vital information from his best friend, I'll never know!"

"I've already told you, you were going to buy one but you had a change of heart and gave all your money to charity," explained Danny, factually. Tucker rolled his eyes and began rapidly tapping on his PDA, muttering about his soon-to-be fortune.

"He won't even tell us about things that matter," complained Sam. "I got some minor out of him but he's been pretty careful to avoid talking about the future."

"Well, can you at least tell me why you still look like you're seventeen when you're... what one-hundred? Two?"

"One-fifty," answered Sam.

"More like two-fifty," corrected Danny, "I think. It's hard to keep track."

Ignoring Sam's surprise, Danny continued. "We never really figured out why I stopped aging. You thought I might have been traumatized by Dan so I subconsciously altered my ectoplasm to delay development."

Jazz nodded. "That makes a lot of sense! And I couldn't help you get past it?"

"We could never prove that was what happened. I mean, Vlad stopped aging, too, so that threw a wrench in that theory." Danny shrugged. "And the idea of being traumatized annoyed the hell out of me so I was never really invested in 'getting past it'."

"Can we get back to you suddenly being a hundred years older than you were three weeks ago!" Sam exclaimed.

"Wait, why is this the first time you've visited me in two-hundred and fifty years?" Jazz asked, her face a cross between hurt and annoyance.

"Done!" Tucker shouted. "I've set reminders for the next thirty years to not give to charity until I have at least two Ferrari's, a Maserati, and three Lamborghini's. There's no way I'll forget now!"

Danny floated into the air, waving his hands in front of him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, one at a time!"

Danny pointed at Jazz. "I have to time these visits perfectly. I can't just show up at any time. Plus, I was a little worried that you would tell past-me something I shouldn't know. You're not the best with secrets."

"Sam, there are only so many times I can come back. I want to space them out, make them last."

"And Tucker... good job. Three Lambo's is a reasonable number. I'm proud of you, you didn't go overboard." Danny grinned and lowered himself to ground-level. "Is that it? Or are there any other questions?"

"Just one," said Jazz, timidly. "Why are you coming back at all? Isn't it a bit risky to be interfering with history?"

"That's easy," smiled Danny. "I missed this. In my time... things get complicated. It's harder than just catching a ghost in the thermos. It's nice to see you guys and just do nothing. Like we used to."

"But is it healthy?" asked Jazz. "Don't you have friends to be with in the future? I don't think you should dwell on us."

Danny shook his head.

"Life moved on when you guys died. And so did I. I have new friends, new responsibilities, an entirely new life. But that doesn't mean I can't look back every once in a while."

* * *

 _Present_

"I don't get it, why did you want to see me, Clockwork?" Danny was pretty confused. He was always happy to see Clockwork, but usually it was for a reason. All they were doing was sitting in his tower drinking tea.

"I am currently doing you a favour." said the Master of Time. He turned into a child as he took as sip of his drink. "You're welcome."

"Oh, thanks... I guess?"said Danny, rubbing the back of his neck. "To you want me to do something? Not that I don't like your company, it's just... I was planning on meeting Sam and Tucker."

"You will have plenty of time to see your friends." was Clockwork's enigmatic answer. "In fact, you are seeing them right now."

Danny didn't know what to make of that.

"Oh, so are you going to send me back in time or something?" asked Danny, trying to get something understandable out of his mentor.

"Eventually. Not today, I think."

"...What?"


End file.
